im right there man, same requirements and all!! I actually started building a toyota starlet and then that fell through. It was going to be around 1500lbs with close to 350 turbo hp.

 

Here's my experience from Sunday's Homestead DE event:

My friend Justin has a modded 997.2 C2 pretty much the same way as my .1 C2S. My best lap time was 1:44 with my cousin in the car this weekend (about 190 lbs of extra weight). And I couldn't push it as much as I wanted because I don't have harness on passenger side and didn't want him to bang his head on the windshield. I could simply get 1 second lower if he wasn't there for sure, maybe even squeeze out 2 seconds (again it's a maybe)... Justin on the other hand was able to pull 1:40 with his car. This shows I still have a lot to learn. I need more seat time for sure.

There was another guy I knew from before, Glen, he just recently bought a 997.2 Turbo S w/ PDK. Before that he had a 997.1 Turbo and he wasn't able to catch up with me. But this weekend he was coming up behind me and passing me! He was literally kicking my butt. What do you think this means, that he is a better driver all of a sudden or that he simply has a better car? I'm thinking he has a better car because he wasn't able to pass me before I know this fact and let it be.

In the end I know I need to learn more myself, and do not get upset over cars that are faster than mine passing me. We're not getting any trophies...

 

good luck, i dont think you will be able to do it with that budget.
running a GT3 on track is at least 10k a year, that's maybe 5-6 track days.

 

I really like ariel atom, used 300hp version as I understand can be found in $20K-$30K area and it is pretty reliable. Should be a lot of fun. Will see...

 

I see, however DE's aren't a race, although I understand what you are saying. The one thing that you will never win with this car is in the straight lines, when compared to high hp cars, it is going to be faster then most in the corners and under braking. It is a tough call, however if it were me I would continue down the path that you have gone, and just try and improve on your exit speeds, and later braking, it will give you a huge advantage on these other cars. Also move to a Hoosier R6 on a lighter wheel, they are a lot faster in the corners and under braking then the Toyo888 on stock wheels.

 

20-30K for a 300hp atom? I'll take 2! I thought they were still 60+ used

 

to move to R6 he needs stiffer springs and new shocks.

 

go figure, it was a discussion on rennlist about that some time ago and some were saying deals can be found. plus some folks will be moving to V8 probably.
but I am not competent to speculate about that, I do not know those prices at all. I understand any atom can be optioned quite differently and it`s quite easy to bump price all the way up depending of what it gets.

 

I disagree, I have them on my car with Bilstein Damptronics, and there are no issues. I am sure the OP's springs are as heavy in not more so then these.

 

great advice from everyone so far. I would like to add one thing nobody said before, if $$$ is the issue here, why not think about something that you can really get for the same $ as your car or even less, what about a new z06, great track car and takes the beating as well as pretty cheap to upkeep. I have a few friends that have P, L, and F cars as their sunday drivers but beat the **** out of their Z06's at the track, just another opinion.

 

After all this discussion and me crunching numbers, I'm going to stick with my car and throw some racing seats in it. I would much much rather have a faster car in the corners then one on the straights!! I really fell in love with my car this weekend, it is an amazing machine!! Thanks everyone for your advice!!

Ps... Why doesn't anyone like tue jic cross suspension?

 

Craig, I think that you are making the right move for now. Adding seats will help a lot more then you would imagine. I would put it to the top of my list of mods to do first. Try some R6's next year, your cornering and braking will improve dramatically.

 

he has JIC cross with apparently 8/11 kg springs. 8kg is 450lbs something?

it is a questionable subject but for hoosiers to work optimally one needs at least 600lbs front springs from what I understand. typically from what I see people who use racing slicks get even stiffer setups, like 800+ lbs front. 450/600 lbs is pretty soft even for dot r-comps.

 

i guess you are just lucky. still you should try car similar to yours which sits on stiffer setup and different shocks.
there is also a guy on renntrack forum who had jics and went to JRZ - you may want to check about his experience.

what I was told - typical problem with JICs is what they are not calibrated properly and settings on diff sides start to differ a lot after valves get older so it is very difficult to setup them properly, quality of monoballs is inferior, rod ends may break, etc. - overall everything is related to cheap materials they use.

rod ends and camber plates issues may be remedied if one uses gt3 standard upper mounts but valving is a problem that cannot be solved,plus valving itself is not optimized for proper springs, those COs are generally come from lower price segment - acuras etc so they are originally optimized for much softer springs.

what of all that is true and what is marketing hype - who knows. that is what my mechanic told me and he could not care less what I put into the car from sales perspective, but he was pretty strongly opionated - if not moton/jrz - only other option is PSS10 but it has to be re-valved for 600+lbs springs.

 

I have no idea what I have with mine, but I have seem R6's on stock 997's and they had no issues either.